This year, Christmas is all about being gorgeous in Mother's yuletide
campaign for Boots.

The ad attempts to show that Boots understands Christmas can be a
thankless list of tedious chores for the female half of the population,
but with a little help, it can also be about being glamorous and
gorgeous.

The ad begins with a woman in a pink dress and huge blonde hair carrying
a child, while dragging a Christmas tree home. Another shot shows a
beautiful woman relaxing in a bubble bath while peeling sprouts.

The voiceover at the end of the ad intones: "Christmas. A time for
giving, receiving, shopping, chopping and stuffing. But most
importantly, being drop-dead gorgeous."

In July of this year, the company merged with Alliance Unichem, creating
a £14 billion business called Alliance Boots. The new company now
has 2,500 branches in the UK, with a further 3,000 across Europe.

Alliance Boots has 24.9 per cent of the health and beauty market, and a
22.5 per cent share of the UK retail pharmacy market.

Orange is putting £9 million behind a campaign to promote its
broadband and mobile packages.

The campaign introduces the new umbrella strategy "togetherness", which
aims to encourage people to keep in touch with each other throughout the
year. The campaign, which comprises a 40-second execution, plus a
20-and two ten-second cutdowns, features two animated characters,
created by Aardman Animations.

The wind-up creatures, which are stuck together, walk through towns,
encountering people. When they stop, people have to wind them back up so
they can continue on their way, keeping their "togetherness" going. The
campaign will be backed by print, online and outdoor executions.

The "togetherness" idea will be used in future campaigns to raise
awareness of Orange's animal packages, as well as promote new and
existing products.

Dare has created a new digital campaign for Sony Ericsson to promote its
range of Walkman phones.

The campaign uses the new branding device, created by the brand
consultancy Wolff Olins, based on the "I (Love) New York" logo. Each
banner ad carries the new device with variations such as "I (logo) it
loud" and "I (logo) queuing" followed by the strapline: "I (logo)
music."

The banner ads click through to the website, which aims to show how
different music affects the world around you. In the centre of the site
is a revolving world containing the new Walkman phones. When users
select a phone, its features are displayed, the scenery changes and a
dancing figure changes its dance moves in time with the music.

A red hula-hoop represents a metaphor for the "feelgood factor" in the
new Clemmow Hornby Inge campaign for Heart FM.

Unusually for a music-related brand, the ad begins in relative silence,
as a hula-hoop rolls along a deserted city street. The hoop is then
picked up by a young woman, strolling along listening to a portable
radio. As she continues on her walk, at the same time giving an
impressive hula display, she begins to pass more and more people who are
also swinging hoops. At the end of the ad, the hula-hoops morph into
hundreds of hearts.

Heart FM is using the campaign to help build it from being just a radio
station to a lifestyle and entertainment brand. It is backing the
campaign with below-the-line activity, including hula-hoop
masterclasses.

In order to boost sales in the run-up to Christmas, Homebase is
launching a TV campaign that positions it as the one-stop shop to "make
your house a home" in time for the holidays.

The spot, created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, follows a group of
animated orange spheres that whirl around a family home to the song
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo from Disney's Cinderella. To the amazement of the
family dog, the balls fly through the chimney and adorn the house with
Christmas gifts and decorations. The spot ends when the dog barks and
the balls fly off down the garden path.

Homebase will be looking to improve on last year's Christmas sales,
which contributed to a 3 per cent fall over the final quarter.

O2 is looking to increase loyalty among its pre-pay customers with an
SMS and e-mail campaign.

The activity, developed by Archibald Ingall Stretton, has been sent to
500,000 pre-pay customers. It offers them the chance to win SIM cards to
give to their mates.

The animated e-mail shows a picture of a bar on a city street.
Underneath, text reads: "With four free SIMs and 500 free texts each, it
costs less to all end up at the same party this Christmas." Customers
receiving the e-mails are invited to submit the names of four friends to
receive the chance to win free SIMs and texts.

Team Saatchi's current ad for Domino's Pizza promotes its latest product
innovation, the Meltdown, which is available in three degrees of
spiciness.

The ad features the two flatmates who were introduced in Domino's World
Cup campaign to publicise its Football Fanatic pizza.

The ad begins with one character, Bernard, tempting the other, John,
with a level three pizza. In a show of macho braggadocio, he casually
opens the box, only to have his arms and face burnt by a torrent of
flames.

In the first 24 weeks of 2006, the company increased its pre-tax profits
by 24.5 per cent to £6.3 million.

The Carbon Trust is using a DM campaign to encourage schools to cut
their energy bills by saving energy.

The mail arrives in a standard brown envelope with a school photo
inside. However, the picture shows a class of schoolchildren all grown
up, dressed in the appropriate attire for their aspirational jobs.

In front of the pupils is a board with the words: "Invest more in your
students' future."

A letter explains how Carbon Trust can help schools reduce their energy
bills, and offers them a free site survey to determine where they can
make savings.